# operator>>(std::basic_istream)

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< cpp‎ | io‎ | basic istream

Defined in header `<istream>` |  |
template< class CharT, class Traits > basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& st, CharT& ch ); template< class Traits > basic_istream<char, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<char, Traits>& st, signed char& ch ); template< class Traits > basic_istream<char, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<char, Traits>& st, unsigned char& ch ); | (1) |
| (2) |
template< class CharT, class Traits> basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& st, CharT* s ); template< class Traits > basic_istream<char, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<char, Traits>& st, signed char* s ); template< class Traits > basic_istream<char, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<char, Traits>& st, unsigned char* s ); |  | (until C++20)
template< class CharT, class Traits, std::size_t N > basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& st, CharT (&s)[N] ); template< class Traits, std::size_t N > basic_istream<char, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<char, Traits>& st, signed char (&s)[N] ); template< class Traits, std::size_t N > basic_istream<char, Traits>& operator>>( basic_istream<char, Traits>& st, unsigned char (&s)[N] ); |  | (since C++20)
template< class Istream, class T > Istream&& operator>>( Istream&& st, T&& value ); | (3) | (since C++11)

1,2) Performs character input operations.
1) Behaves as a FormattedInputFunction. After constructing and checking the sentry object, which may skip leading whitespace, extracts a character and stores it to `ch`. If no character is available, sets `failbit` (in addition to `eofbit` that is set as required of a FormattedInputFunction).
2) Behaves as a FormattedInputFunction. After constructing and checking the sentry object, which may skip leading whitespace, extracts successive characters and stores them at successive locations of a character array whose first element is pointed to by(until C++20) `s`. The extraction stops if any of the following conditions is met:

- A whitespace character (as determined by the `ctype<CharT>` facet) is found. The whitespace character is not extracted.

If st.width() is greater than zero, st.width() - 1 characters are stored. | (until C++20)
n - 1 characters are stored, where n is defined as follows: If st.width() is greater than zero, std::min(std::size_t(st.width()), N); otherwise, n is N. | (since C++20)

- End of file occurs in the input sequence (this also sets `eofbit`).

In either case, an additional null character value CharT() is stored at the end of the output. If no characters were extracted, sets `failbit` (the null character is still written, to the first position in the output). Finally, calls st.width(0) to cancel the effects of std::setw, if any.
3) Calls the appropriate extraction operator, given an rvalue reference to an input stream object (equivalent to st >> std::forward<T>(value)). This overload participates in overload resolution only if st >> std::forward<T>(value) is well-formed and `Istream` is a class type publicly and unambiguously derived from std::ios_base.

### Notes

Extracting a single character that is the last character of the stream does not set `eofbit`: this is different from other formatted input functions, such as extracting the last integer with operator>>, but this behavior matches the behavior of std::scanf with "%c" format specifier.

### Parameters

st | - | input stream to extract the data from
ch | - | reference to a character to store the extracted character to
s | - | pointer to(until C++20) a character array to store the extracted characters to

### Return value

1,2) st
3) std::move(st)

### Example

Run this code

    #include <iomanip>
    #include <iostream>
    #include <sstream>

    int main()
    {
        std::string input = "n greetings";
        std::istringstream stream(input);

        char c;
        const int MAX = 6;
        char cstr[MAX];

        stream >> c >> std::setw(MAX) >> cstr;
        std::cout << "c = " << c << '\n'
                  << "cstr = " << cstr << '\n';

        double f;
        std::istringstream("1.23") >> f; // rvalue stream extraction
        std::cout << "f = " << f << '\n';
    }

Output:

    c = n
    cstr = greet
    f = 1.23

### Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR | Applied to | Behavior as published | Correct behavior
--- | --- | --- | ---
LWG 13 | C++98 | the definition of n mentioned a non-existing name eos | replaced with CharT()
LWG 68 | C++98 | no null characters were stored at the end of the output for overload (2) | stores a null character
LWG 1203 | C++98 | overload for rvalue stream returned lvalue reference to the base class | returns rvalue reference to the derived class
LWG 2328 | C++98 | overload for rvalue stream required another argument to be lvalue | made to accept rvalue
LWG 2534 | C++98 | overload for rvalue stream was not constrained | constrained

### See also

operator>> | extracts formatted data (public member function)

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